Vietnam Welcomes First Surrogate Twins

A pair of surrogate twins were born last week in Tu Du Hospital in Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, marking the first twins given birth by a surrogate mother in the Southeast Asian country. The twins, who are two boys weighing 2.1kg and 1.9kg, state media reported, citing Tran Ngoc Hai, head of the infirmary’s Division for Planning and Assortment. The babies are in good conditions and responding positively to bottle feeding, Hai said, adding that the hospital handed over the twins to their family two days after the birth. Their biological mother is a 29-year-old woman from the central province of Khanh Hoa while the one carrying out the surrogacy is a 34-year-old cousin. Vietnam’s first ever surrogate child was born in capital city of Hanoi in January after the country legalized surrogacy for “humanitarian reasons” a year ago. The baby girl was born via Caesarean section, which was actually performed by Deputy Minister of Health Dr Nguyen Viet Tien. The child’s real mother Nguyen Thi Ha and her husband have been married for 18 years and want to have children. Unfortunately, three years into their marriage, she was diagnosed as infertile. Their baby girl weighed 3.6kg when she was born. Surrogacy remained illegal in Vietnam until March 2015 when the National Assembly, the country’s top legislature, approved the revised Law on Marriage and Family. Accordingly, the law allows surrogacy agreements to be made between women in the same family for “humanitarian” reasons. Commercial surrogacy, where would-be parents pay another woman to carry their child, remains illegal in the Southeast Asian nation. Nearly 30 more babies are expected to be born to surrogates over the next three months, the newswire VnExpress has reported. Only five hospitals in the country are allowed to perform the medical procedures necessary for surrogacy. Before the official recognition, part of Vietnam’s infertile couples had sought this service in an unlawful way or abroad. As Thailand closes its doors to commercial surrogacy, another South East Asian nation has tentatively begun to utilize surrogacy for couples unable to have children, foreign media reported. (Vov Mar 22, VnExpress.net Mar 21, Tuoi Tre Mar 18)